In a world of diet fads, there are very few things that are tried, true, and timeless. Fasting is one of the most ancient practices still going on today. That alone lets us know it’s worth looking into. I will be writing over the next few days several things Fasting does to improve our lives and help us achieve our goals. Today – Hunger Hormone Regulation.

1. Fasting Regulates your ‘Hunger Hormones’ Leptin and Ghrelin.
Leptin is THE Appetite Suppressing Hormone. It tells your body that there is energy in the bank to be spent still. Leptin is released primarily by fat cells into the blood stream. Fat is your bodies energy bank – when fat is processed it releases Leptin – The Leptin says, “I got this!”
But wouldn’t you expect people with high levels of body fat to not be hungry if this was the whole story?! Well, your brain develops resistance to this chemical because of it’s abundance, therefore it has to have the ‘reset’ button pushed. This can only be done by fasting. There is no other way to reset your hunger hormones, but to give your body frequent 12-24 hour fasts.
Ghrelin is the Hungry Hormone – It tells your brain that it’s time to eat. When your brain is resistant to Leptin – it doesn’t recognize its presence even if it’s abundant; then it releases the Ghrelin (Growlin, to help you remember) monster in your belly. It tells you to eat and it won’t shut up until you do, and even then just for a few hours because your body isn’t responding to Leptin without a fast.

How does Fasting Reset the Hunger Hormones?
We have been programed against the grain! We have been told to eat whenever we want. We have been told that eating every 3-4 hours is the best way to nourish our bodies. But that is only true for babies and people on weight gaining diets. Your body will always preference food in the belly over the fat around it. By eating every 3-4 hours we tell our body not to worry about responding to leptin – the appetite suppressing hormone – We don’t need to pull energy from our fat and glycogen stores when there is always fresh fuel being delivered to our digestive system. Now our Ghrelin is screaming like a 3 month old baby every few hours – it’s never happy and all it thinks about is getting that belly filled. We learn to be slaves of the ghrelin hunger hormone and develop resistance to the leptin – the appetite suppressing hormone.
Fasting resets the system. Fasting tells your body that there isn’t a meal coming – it makes the Leptin ‘louder’ so to speak. Your body comes to realize that there is fuel stored in your fat and that it can go after that instead. Ghrelin should only be kicking in when you truly NEED the food. Fasting helps your body re-learn how to listen to our hunger suppressing hormone – Leptin – more and regulates the Ghrelin levels to where they ought to be. Your body and mind essentially learn how to tell the difference between true hunger and appetite. Your body develops a preference for survivals sake towards the Leptin to derive it’s energy from fat and glycogen stores in the body – what this results in is more accessible weight management skills and results.

Fasting will retrain your hunger hormones
Fasting twice a week for 12-24 hours has proven to regulate and reset your hunger and appetite suppressing hormones to their default – causing you not to be confused about what and when to eat anymore. Fasting will help you learn what hunger is, and when and how to respond to it properly.

]]>http://52well.com/2017/08/30/hunger-hormones-and-the-magic-of-fasting/feed/08420 Rep Sets To Gain Muscle and Burn Fathttp://52well.com/2016/12/27/20-rep-sets-to-gain-muscle-and-burn-fat/
http://52well.com/2016/12/27/20-rep-sets-to-gain-muscle-and-burn-fat/#respondTue, 27 Dec 2016 16:11:03 +0000http://52well.com/?p=56Training hard leads to all kinds of benefits – and every rose has it’s thorns. 2 years ago I went all in on the 5x5x5 workout. I saw some really nice results, but after a good run at it my joints and ligaments started to wear a little bit. 5 months ago I was forced to take some time off with a pinched nerve in my upper back. It was humiliating, rehabilitating and I felt like I’d lost everything I’d worked so hard to gain in strength and size. I had to find something that would suit my needs, provide an intense workout without the strain on joints, ligaments and my nerves. That’s when I decided to throw my ego aside and train a new way.

20 rep sets have changed the way I workout, the way I look in the mirror and ultimately 20 rep sets have led to me feeling like I’m getting the best workouts I’ve ever had in nearly 20 years of training using 20x5x4 workouts. Thats 20 repetitions per set – 5 set’s per exercise and 4 different exercises for the target muscle group for the day.

3 Major Advantages of 20x5x4 workouts

Build Muscle, Burn Fat, Low Stress

Build Muscle with 20 rep sets with 4 major advantages.

Time under tension: Not all muscle fibers respond the same way to the same stimuli. Longer time under tension or Time Under Load (TUT or TUL) means more opportunity for all of your target muscle fibers to respond to the exercise. One of the biggest secrets professional body builders use is a high rep routine. Time under tension takes a 20 second set of 8 reps, and makes it into a 45 second time of tension. More Blood releases the PUMP they are looking for to encourage muscle growth. It works too.

Higher Volume: More volume means more muscular conditioning, strength gains, more calories burnt, and more productive workouts. Comparing my 5×5 workouts to my 20×5 for bench press. 5×5 @ 225 pounds is a decent 5×5. total work is 1,125 pounds per set multiplied by 5 sets is 5,625 pounds of work. However at the same strength level I can manage 5×20 @ 145 pounds. Work per set is 2,900 pounds per set; multiplied by the 5 sets is 14,500 pounds of work. Even though the weight is much lighter, the amount of work my muscles do in about the same amount of time is almost tripled. More volume tells your muscles to build mass in preparation for next time. There’s a whole bunch of other scientific mojo about amino acids and hypertrophy and all of that, but I thought I’d just let logic, numbers and a little bit of bro-science speak for itself.

Power Development: Power is measured by Force X Velocity. But more appropriately Power = Force multiplied by (Work/Time) Power development means being able to move the mass quickly, accelerating fast through every movement. Heavy weights tend to move slowly because the focus is to control the weight and avoid a dangerous situation. The lighter weights can be quickly accelerated over and over again. This leads to a more athletic and powerful – not just stronger, there is a difference – version of yourself.

Injury rehab and prevention: 20 rep sets provide you with more work while dealing less stress to connective tissues, nerves, and such. There is a much lower risk of injury. If you are injured hi rep sets will help to insure that you do not lose the gains you worked so hard for. Higher rep sets helps to insure that you can stay consistent for many years to come and that all adds up to an amazing body. In a game when Consistency is the key Injury prevention and rehabilitation is a must.

Every person I’ve helped switch over to 20×5 workouts has complained about how sore they were because the workouts did their job, they have also been happy with their results. Maybe it’s time for you to consider going higher volume to break through them plateaus. Happy lifting!!!

]]>http://52well.com/2016/12/27/20-rep-sets-to-gain-muscle-and-burn-fat/feed/056All I Want For Christmas Is Gains And Losseshttp://52well.com/2016/12/24/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-gains-and-losses/
http://52well.com/2016/12/24/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-gains-and-losses/#respondSat, 24 Dec 2016 19:10:02 +0000http://52well.com/?p=53Forget my two front teeth – I want my progress on my goals! I want more lean muscle mass and less fat. Be honest – Everyone wants muscle gains. Everyone wants fat loss. But not everyone makes it more than a christmas list wish or new years resolution. ‘Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.’

It’s time to stop wishing and start hoping! Christmas is about HOPE. Hope, true hope is to look forward to something with expectation! Wishing is simply a lofty thought about a farfetched reality. Are you wishing? Are you hoping? What’s the difference? You make the difference.

STOP WISHING! Wishing puts the results in the hands of some mystical thing that’s out of your control. Leaving things up to ‘serendipity’ or ‘fate’ is a hopeless life, hopeless goals and depressed mindsets about wishes never coming true. Wishing is futile so stop leaning into a wish. Stop watching videos of people achieving YOUR GOALS for themselves, and start taking control.

START HOPING! Hope requires faith. It requires that you believe that what you are doing is working and will continue to work until you see that muscle gain and fat loss goal achieved. Have faith in the process – It takes time, but eventually it’ll all turn out. Stay consistent. Start hoping! Face each meal, each workout as it is: another brick in the wall, piece by piece you’ll build a monument of HOPE. It’s funny, if you start hoping – you’ll end up an inspiration. A HOPE bringer and giver. You have to prove it to yourself and everyone else that your goals are more than wishful thinking. You are hopeful and determined. You will see those muscle gains and you will burn the fat off. Start hoping in your future reality, a dream soon to come true.

This Christmas make a decision to shift your mindset from wishful thinking to Hope. Show yourself hope, show yourself that it is working and keep at it. You’ll see that Hope become a beacon of Hope – You are an inspiration waiting to happen. There are many wishing for Hope – Do it for you, Do it for them. Merry Christmas!

]]>http://52well.com/2016/12/24/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-gains-and-losses/feed/053Coffee Is a Super-Suppliment!http://52well.com/2016/12/23/coffee-is-a-super-supliment/
http://52well.com/2016/12/23/coffee-is-a-super-supliment/#commentsFri, 23 Dec 2016 15:08:48 +0000http://52well.com/?p=49Coffee, The sound, the smell, the thought of it brings us pleasure. They call it an ‘acquired’ taste. Not sure what that means anyways, really! But heres the scoop on your morning scoop of dirt from heaven – coffee is one of the best pre-workout drinks ever. I’m going to focus on four things that coffee does. Short and sweet. Oh but there’s a rule, drink it black for it’s best effects.

Coffee increases fat burn and energy: Not only does the caffeine boost your metabolism throughout the day, but the combination of other goodies in your morning cup possess fat burning preferences in your body for fat to be metabolized. The fat burning effects of your coffee are increased all the more in the gym – this makes coffee your ‘fat burn secret.’ Here’s the catch. The fat burning properties of coffee are drawn out when you don’t feed your coffee the fat and sugars it wants – in other words: no cream or sugar. Black coffee wins. If you provide the calories and the fat with the coffee when you drink it, your body won’t preference to burn stored energy (fat) it’ll just handle the ready to be metabolized stuff in your gut.

Coffee is an appetite suppressant: If you are like me, you like to work out in a ‘fasted state’ and regularly pair coffee with ‘intermittent fasting.’ Coffee is the trick. coffee tells your body to pull energy from your glycogen and fat stores, and your body will listen if there isn’t much in that tummy to grab ahold of. Think about it, when you are on the treadmill you might feel a little hungry, but the body is preferencing fat for energy and therefore doesn’t send as many ‘food’ signals. But why the aerobic exercise ends – then the food cravings start. Coffee helps to put your body in the mood for a workout and curb the cravings before and after it.

Better Performance and Less Muscle Pain: I thought I’d pair the most obvious – better performance – with the less obvious – decreased muscle pain during the workout. Coffee helps you get those extra reps or steps in. The burn comes a little later when you’re on the coffee. This means the workouts don’t hurt so much, or if you’re like me, they hurt just as much – just after you get more work in; which ought to be the goal – maximize your workouts with coffee.

Remember: this works best when you have your coffee black, and everything is maximized for the fat burn when you are at least semi-fasted. Don’t forget, coffee has the capability to squeeze water out of your cells, so drink plenty of water before and during your workout to stay hydrated and healthy.

]]>http://52well.com/2016/12/23/coffee-is-a-super-supliment/feed/249The quick fix is a BINGEhttp://52well.com/2016/12/23/the-quick-fix-is-a-binge/
http://52well.com/2016/12/23/the-quick-fix-is-a-binge/#commentsFri, 23 Dec 2016 01:45:16 +0000http://52well.com/?p=45There’s a point to this, just humor me. Binge eating! What does it make you think of? It makes me think of those nights when I just want Peanut butter and jelly!!! I do it up like a pro. One slice of bread. A knife of peanut butter and a spoon full of jelly; fold it up like a taco and it’s gone in 2 bites. Who has time to spread it out – I’m on a friggin binge, give me another!!!

I’m no genius to point out that this is bad idea. But it’s my experience. Something in me clicks. I respond to a desire, a perceived need, a deficit and binge like crazy. All the while I tell myself that I need it, that I’ve been deprived of calories and carb. I tell myself fairy tales like that I will spend 2 hours at the gym to pay for it – but like most fairy tales that never comes true. Why is that – you can not win in a fight of binges.

YOU CANNOT OVERCOME BINGE WITH BINGE

You cannot combat that impulsive eating by ‘binge dieting’ or ‘binge training.’ It’s pure insanity. A life style of punishing yourself for making diet mistake is a lifestyle of punishment. Eventually – like most normal people; you’ll just stop punishing yourself. You’ll come to your senses and let yourself eat without the shame. You’ll stop going to the gym because the gym is a place for punishment, or the gym is a place you go to in order to break even with yesterdays pizza.

YOU CAN OVERCOME BINGING WITH LIFE STYLE CHANGES

Look, binge eating might not be your thing. but you might binge on your workouts. take 2 months off and try to make it all up in a week. This is not healthy. It stresses your body out and causes it to want to conserve energy producing lethargy and ultimately slowing your progress. You have to make life style changes to overcome binging. You have to believe what is true about you and your body and live out that truth. So start asking the right questions and adjust life style – do some ‘life-styling’ in response.

ASK THE HONEST QUESTION AND RESPOND HONESTLY

“Why did I binge?” Probably because you were craving a body change, not a life style change. Perhaps it’s because your lifestyle was deficient and you malnourished yourself which led to uncontrollable animal like cravings. Be honest with yourself and above all. Be patient with yourself. If you are hones and listen to your body you’ll know all you need to know. Life style changes don’t happen by force in short periods of time, that’s called binging and it never ends well.

ENJOY THE PROCESS AND ENJOY THE PROGRESS

If what you’ve been trying leads you to the ‘start-stop’ inconsistency most people experience with their fitness and diet goals; then you have to learn to be less impulsive. Take your time, Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will your abs be sculpted in a week. Take time to educate yourself and embrace each change fully. Understand what and why you are doing what you’re doing. Be consistent (see my article on progress) and slow down a little. It’s hard to be a Binger if you are slowing down and enjoying the process. I imagine I would eat a lot less PBnJ if I would just take the time to properly spread the peanut butter and jelly out and enjoy each bite. I also imagine you will love your progress when you take the time to appreciate and enjoy the process – even if it means being less impulsive and celebrating the small successes along the way. Don’t wreck yourself going at it like a speed demon. Get better results by slowing down in your life style changes. You’ll thank yourself later. You don’t want, and you don’t need a quick fix. You need a true sustainable life change, just like the rest of us.

]]>http://52well.com/2016/12/23/the-quick-fix-is-a-binge/feed/245Egg on the new year – this one breakfast change will change your lifehttp://52well.com/2016/12/21/egg-on-the-new-year-this-one-breakfast-change-will-change-your-life/
http://52well.com/2016/12/21/egg-on-the-new-year-this-one-breakfast-change-will-change-your-life/#respondWed, 21 Dec 2016 22:20:51 +0000http://52well.com/?p=42

Eggs are Eggsential! Okay that was a bad pun, sorry. Puns aside, lets talk about what happens when the morning bun is traded for a few eggs for breakfast. Start the new year right, trade your carb loaded breakfast for eggs and you will never regret the results they produce in your fit life-style. Calorie for Calorie there is very little that can hold a candle to eggs. One Egg contains about 78 calories, 6 grams of the highest quality protein you can get from food, and provides you with slow burning energy with the fats in the yolk. To top it off, Eggs are CARB-FREE! Compare 3 eggs to 2 pieces of toast with jelly.

Calories

2 slices of toast with jelly will yield about 234 calories

3 eggs will yield about 234 calories as well.

Side by side – the calories of 2 slices of jelly toast are the same as 3 eggs. But calories are not the whole story.

Carbohydrates – 2 slices of toast with jelly = 46 carbs. 6 are pure sugar and less than 2 grams of fiber.

3 Eggs = NO CARBS! Carbs aren’t the devil, but consuming a high carb breakfast tells your body what it will crave and want to run on all day. A high carb breakfast means carb cravings throughout the day.

Fats – 2 slices of toast has 3 grams of fat. It is lower in fat than the eggs, but that’s actually not a good thing. Not if you want to feel full from your breakfast. You need good fat early in the day because it is a slow burning energy that fuels you for longer and leaves you feeling full.

3 Eggs = 15 grams of fat. Eating fat doesn’t make you fat. Your body burns fat as energy. That’s why your body stores SUGAR in your body in the form of FAT. The correlation between fat and too many carbohydrates is the truth about gaining weight. Fat is the slowest burning and longest lasting energy you can consume, eat it in the morning along with protein. Also many vitamins are ‘fat soluable’ meaning that the vitamin cannot be absorbed into your body without fats.

That’s just the beginning of the story. I find that in the most basic ways, but also getting down to the tiny elements and nutrients eggs stack up win after win when paired against carb loaded toast with jelly.

Eggs leave you feeling way more full than toast does. Eggs provide you with everything essential to start your day off right and avoid early cravings between meals.

]]>http://52well.com/2016/12/21/egg-on-the-new-year-this-one-breakfast-change-will-change-your-life/feed/042Slow Down For Better Results From The Gymhttp://52well.com/2016/12/21/slow-down-for-better-results-from-the-gym/
http://52well.com/2016/12/21/slow-down-for-better-results-from-the-gym/#respondWed, 21 Dec 2016 20:42:07 +0000http://52well.com/?p=39IF you are anything like me; you can be a bit impulsive about your decision to get fit fast. Your whole life gets flipped on end, as well as your household when you decide that this time you are serious about getting results from life-style changes. You dump all the junk food, try to acquire a taste for kale, and you spend every spare moment you have either in the gym, or studying the internet for a quick fix.

There is no quick fix. Working harder will bring results fast, but you inevitably will be asking yourself a question: ‘Is this really the life I want?’ ‘Do I value change in my body enough to change everything else in my life at once?’

Let me answer that question for you. NO! No you don’t. That’s why you search the web for six minute six-pack-abs. That’s why you put your faith in 30 day body transformations. That’s why you look for the 2 week diet pill. That’s why the 3 day cleanse is appealing. You want results NOW, and everyone on the web knows you do. So what’s the deal? SLOW DOWN!!! Don’t be in such a hurry. The mentality is wrong and your results will not last if they come without true habitual life-styling changes.

Three major components to any successful body transformation:

Sleep

Nutrition

Activity

It doesn’t take a genius to figure this one out. But what it requires is patience with yourself to do it right. Why not take some time.

SLEEP: Start with sleep. Don’t worry about nutrition, don’t even worry about hitting the gym yet. Teach yourself that you love sleep, that it is good for you. Show yourself the benefit of that extra hour or two of sleep. Make sure you get a full 8 hours every night. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, your body will not respond as well to the other changes in your life. What if you took 2 weeks to change your sleep habits; you’d be a happier, more energetic, and less stressed version of yourself.

NUTRITION: Find out what works for you. Nail your nutrition down before you start your workouts. WHY? Here’s the deal. When you develop habits of healthy eating before you add the gym life to your life change; you learn what’s good for you. You learn what energizes you without the added fatigue of gym life. You also learn how to see and maintain results through diet alone. Make a life style change with your diet. Don’t look for a quick weight loss diet, look for a life style diet that suits you well. Give that 30 days to sink in. See results from diet. You will feel better, you will sleep better. It takes a full 30 days to retrain your body to crave the good stuff and stop withdrawing from the not-so-good stuff. Now you have 2/3 of the life change habits in place. Now you know how to maintain the results you got in the gym if ever those days go away and life gets crazy.

GYM: This is at the bottom of the list for a good reason. It is nothing without proper sleep and nutrition. You will not get the results from your workouts that you desire if you don’t have proper sleep for recovery and diet to fuel the workouts and recovery. People make the mistake of changing diet and gym together. What happens is they train themselves to crave and eat enough food to make up for the calories burned in the gym. Therefore moderate results from the gym because the calorie deficit is cancelled by increased calories. What makes it worse is the eating habits stay when the gym goes away – therefore you hate yourself if you don’t go to the gym. You lose results so fast you can’t handle it. This has to do with not nailing down your eating and sleeping habits before your gym habits. This is a lifestyle change. Take your time with it.

Slow down. You’ll thank yourself when your whole world is finally and successfully changed and on track with your goals.

]]>http://52well.com/2016/12/21/slow-down-for-better-results-from-the-gym/feed/039One word you must know to get the results you want.http://52well.com/2016/12/20/one-word-you-must-know-to-get-the-results-you-want/
http://52well.com/2016/12/20/one-word-you-must-know-to-get-the-results-you-want/#commentsTue, 20 Dec 2016 04:05:00 +0000http://52well.com/?p=29Buzz words. Everybody goes by them. Those short mantras we all can recall: ‘no pain, no gain,’ ‘what doesn’t kill me will make me stronger,’ ‘winners never quit.’ ‘hakunah matata.’ All of these things are nice and all. But you can say them all you want, you can believe yourself while you say them too. Will it change anything? Words are cheap – they are easy, but some words are heavy and they call you to action better than others.

There is one word, so powerful that it has built empires and overcome the toughest of predicaments. It’s more than a word, it’s a rule to live by, a lifestyle that will always produce fruit after sweet fruit. ‘Consistency.’ Consistency is the skeleton key. let me briefly explain how this all works every time:

CONSISTENCY RULES

Look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself an honest question: how did I get to be this way? If you are built like a greek God, you know the answer – you consistently worked you’re butt off in the gym, you consistently picked the best foods for your bodies needs, you consistently did the right things. But if you are like most normal people in the world, you look in the mirror and the answer is consistent excuses, neglects, fast food, conveniences and overwhelming stress. You didn’t gain 100 pounds over night, you didn’t wake up and all of the sudden realize your whole wardrobe is 5 sizes too small.

ACCEPT IT.

You will not take a pill and wake up skinny. You will not drink a tub of whey protein isolate and gain 20 pounds of lean mass in a week. There is no such thing as a quick fix. Accept it. It’s gonna take time to dig yourself out of the things that have been built over years.

CHANGE IT.

Three key factors must change in order for you to get the results you desire.

NUTRITION – This is the paramount ingredient in changing your life. If you get everything else right, but the nutrition doesn’t change accordingly – your results will be discouraging – and that discouragement fights hard against the will to be consistent

ACTIVITY – You must tell your body what you want it to do – Make it something fun and challenging. If you hate every aspect of working out, you’ll want to quit before you fully buy into the benefits it produces. If you can be consistent in increasing and modeling you activity around the goals you set, you’ll start loving it, and it will love you back.

STRESS – Reduce your stress level. Get adequate sleep! a good night sleep does wonders for stress levels. Also HAVE SOME FUN!!! Go see a movie with friends and family. Go for a walk, read a book, pray, meditate. Do what you can to manage your stress levels throughout the day. Stress is also released through consistent diet and activity changes.

DECIDE to be consistent now. Decide to pick a program and stick with it. If all you are is consistent in dragging your feet or quitting and switching approaches to your goals; you’ll have a long and arduous journey towards moderate, lackluster results. Be consistent, follow through and be honest with yourself.